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Thursday, 2 July 2015

"Precocious" by Joanna Barnard.

I received a copy of this title from http://www.lovereading.co.uk/ in return for an honest review...

A schoolgirl crush is almost a rite of passage. An influential teacher. A bright young girl. A love of literature and a disdain for
frivolity. Fifteen year old Fiona Palmer
idolises her English teacher, Henry Morgan, and he returns her unwavering attention. A line is crossed, but just who is to blame?

Years later, Fiona, now married, bumps into her former
teacher and the passion inside her is reignited almost at once. Their past is not long becoming the present
but can they stop it before someone gets hurt? Can a precocious child and an enigmatic teacher work
together with no sexual involvement? Can
a mutual respect for each other remain innocent? Does age really matter? Joanna Barnard askes these questions, and
more, within the pages of her debut novel.
It is a story of obsession, trust,
honesty and betrayal. A coming of age
tale with a sting in its tale…

Although this is not an original idea, the concept of a
teacher/pupil relationship is addressed in a slightly different way. This time the narrator is a thirty year old,
married woman, recalling her experiences as a fifteen year old student in love
with her mentor. She almost loves him
before even setting eyes on him, as he is extremely popular with the students
of the school. In his twenties, handsome
in an intelligent way, he is a bit of an enigma and this appeals very much to
the unusual Fiona. She is the
stereo-typical, angst ridden teen, with dreams of becoming a writer and being
different to her peers. Mr. Morgan spots
this trait, and plays on it. However,
Fiona is also very adept at playing the game of seduction. Is it as simple as abuse of authority or does
some blame lie with the ‘mature’ nature of Fiona? The author divides the narrative between the
two frames, fairly equally, with Fiona guiding us through past and
present. It becomes very obvious that
she is not a nice person. Not at
all. Neither is Henry. They are well matched. Both narcissists, both void of genuine
emotion and neither having an ounce of compassion for anyone but
themselves. There are secrets, lies and
hidden agendas from both ends. Manipulation and desperation ooze from the
pages of this novel and the writing is superb. The detail within the story is finely tuned
and the prose is delicate, yet simultaneously harsh. There is however, a lot of repetition and it
dragged on in places. The ending was
also a let-down for me, as once again, the precocious protagonist walks away
unhindered and unharmed.

Overall, a beautifully written book, with a clever character
driven plot. It was just lacking something,
which I can’t put my finger on…

Precocious is published by Ebury Press and is available in hardback and ebook edition.
This book can be purchased with Free Worldwide Postage, from Kennys.ie (also with 22% discount at time of posting review) via buy link below:

About Me

I am a Mum of 5 and and a full time foster carer who escapes into the wonderful world of books.... I am a contributor to Writing.ie as well as lovereading.co.uk and novelicous.com and do guest reviews and posts for other blogs. I run a monthly giveaway of my Random Recommendations which are of varying genres. I keep the reviews short and sweet as well as honest and personal. If the book was received from an author or publisher, for review purposes, I will state this in the review.
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